Archive for August, 2012

I'm a mom of three, a professional accountant, and an amateur photographer and writer. I am not a marriage expert. But my husband and I take "Til death do us part" seriously, and here I'll be sharing how we keep our marriage strong while we both do that insane work-life juggle.

My husband is on staff at our church, and his job is to run the children’s and families department. Part of that commitment sees him standing on the platform every Sunday, performing an object lesson for the kids (and adults) who sit in front of him.

This past Sunday, he talked about how there are so many responsibilities when you have a family. There are babies, who are all-consuming, there is cooking and baking, there is vacuuming and laundry. And then there are the dirty jobs (he said this, while snapping on rubber gloves and waving a toilet brush). Nobody likes to do the dirty jobs.

(The object of the lesson was to talk about how a church family is like your own family; we all have jobs to do, and we work together.)

Many of my friends have great marriages and they attribute it to their parents. Said parents have been married for decades, have modeled great marriages, and have supported their kids in their own marriages.

My Dad has been married five times (I have eight siblings from the first three marriages) and my Mom has been married three times. That’s six divorces between them, if you’re counting.

Let’s say that you are a working Mom (in addition to the work that goes into simply being a Mom). Let’s say that your husband is a working Dad (in addition to the work that goes into simply being a Dad). You also are in charge of things like groceries and cooking, he’s also in charge of things like keeping the garden growing and the fixing the oven/washer/dishwasher when they break.

(I do not envy him. When electronics break, I get disproportionately ANGRY.)

I’m sure that you’ve all heard about the Robert Pattinson/Kristen Stewart debacle, which is a hard one to miss because it is being dissected EVERYWHERE. It’s hard enough to find out that the one you love has cheated on you; I can’t imagine how horrible it must be for those two. I don’t know them at all (obviously), but for some reason I hope they can work it out.

I have never had my husband cheat on me, and neither of us plan on that happening, which is why we work hard at keeping our relationship fresh and alive. Date nights, sex more nights than not, time at the end of the day to connect, etc. We also don’t spend time alone with members of the opposite sex (i.e. coffee dates, movies, etc.) We do have friends of the opposite sex, but we hang out in groups.

It’s summer vacation, as we all know, and I know that in many parts of the country, kids go back to school in early to mid August. Our school district is different - kids go to school until the end of June and return after the September long weekend. This means that my kids still have five weeks of summer break, and it might just kill my husband and I.

We love our kids. Heck we like our kids. We love to hang out in our yard, go to the beach, watch SYTYCD, go for bike rides, etc. I have always wanted to be a Mom, and my kids are so funny and quirky that they are fun to be around. We enjoy each other.

I’m in New York City for my fifth BlogHer conference, while my husband is at home taking our kids to the beach every afternoon. Every year, I ask him if he wants to come with me, and every year he laughs, because he is not a blogger and is not a fan of big cities.

He send me on my merry way to catch up with the friends I have made through the computer, and I have (and am having) a great time. Laughs over coffee, late night conversations, and some dancing in between.

Speaking of coffee, after working with her for over three years now, I finally met our very own Nataly! She’s just as sweet and energetic as she sounds on her own blog.